Tröegs Dead Reckoning Porter | Tröegs Brewing Company

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Reviews by KFaulkner:

Just as a disclaimer, Troegs is my favorite brewery (a hometown hero of sorts) and the Trogner brothers' dedication and skill in brewing world class beers notwithstanding, I review this beer as impartially as possible.

Pour a dark brown into a pint glass with a cloudy opaque body. This beer is unfiltered.

It smells sweet but robust, with scents of chocolate and burnt oak. The foamy head quickly recedes to a filmy layer of whispy lace. The first taste is smooth, and creamy, but has a hoppier back end than most porters which is a welcome characteristic.

It's easy to drink, delicious and the perfect beer for the changing seasons. It's great to see a porter rolled out by Troegs in preparation for its colder season beers like Oatmeal Stout and the fan-favorite Mad Elf. Now if only Pennsylvania would start selling six packs... but that's another story.

Troegs official website has this beer listed at 5.8% ABV. I have submitted a change request based on this info.
http://www.troegs.com/beers_Dead%20Reckoning.htm

According to this site it is also a seasonal release as opposed to a rotating release and that it is currently replacing its Oatmeal Stout for the year rather than supplementing it. More info on their Oatmeal Stout to follow.

More User Reviews:

You put hops in my porter! You put porter in my hops! This is one hoppy porter. It tastes good, to be sure, but not that smooth taste you would expect from a Porter. I am all about mixing and matching and being creative with beer styles, but having said that, the hops could have been dialed back just a tad. I enjoyed the beer and at the end of the beer, that's all that matters, but I didn't quite feel like I got my porter on.

Pours with a decent head out of McGrath's in Harrisburg. The black patent malts definitely seem to be there and the mouthfeel was just about right. Not your thickness of a stout, but a little more something something than a brown ale. This is a good drinking beer, just be prepared to get popped with hops.

This is a porter in name only. My ratings ignore the BJCP description and try to reflect my personal opinion of the quality of what's been brewed, keeping in mind that the bottle says it's a porter.

A - 1-finger tan head that dissipated rather quickly, but left a well-defined ring of foam around the edge and an archipelago of little foamy islands on the surface. Color is a deep brown that is ~75% opaque and very deep ruby red when held to a light.

S - Hops leap out of the bottle after the pour. Would swear it was an IPA if blindfolded. Nose is rich in hops. Smells like I'm in a pine forest in spring. And there's some grapefruit, too, which is likely the Chinook they list on the bottle. Some roasted malts and a touch of caramel underneath them.

T - Let's make an IPA with a roasty porter grain bill. Hops from start to finish. Well-roasted malts, espresso beans, dark chocolate, with burnt caramel providing some sweetness in the finish, but it's the bittering hops that really last.

M - Decently creamy without being full or thick. Good carbonation. Finish is hoppy and on the dry side, making it seem a tad thin.

D - A porter for someone who wants the hops of an IPA and almost, but not quite, the level of roasting that a full stout gets. This isn't what I'm looking for in a porter, but I know a lot of hopheads who would lap this stuff up like water at an oasis, especially in winter.

Taste is quite pleasant, but more like a hoppy brown ale than a porter. Roasted malts are represented by a lasting chocolate character. Just a wee hint of roasty coffee here that is barely picked up. Hops are as assertive in the taste as in the aroma with lots of citrusy orange and grapefruit bitterness. Finishes with a hint of pine.

Really well done and highly drinkable but I question its pedigree as a porter.

12 ounce bottle, I'm a sucker for the Good ole' Grateful Dead theme, including the 60's style Troegs writing on the label. Pours a deep respectable near black ballsy porter tone. Mocha tiny bubble head, nice lacing and a tad of sheeting. Dark malts and hints of chocolate and cafe au lait in the nose. Very pleasant, tasty and easy drinking porter. More nice roastyness of the malts, a hint of smoke,light chocolate notes, moderate hop presence late and an overall quite pleasant approach. Well worth a try.

Mouthfeel: smooth, light body-especially for the style, high carbonation, sweet start with more bitter finish

Drinkability: This is very drinkable and different from most porters I have had. The hop presence is different but fits in line with Troeg's beers. I see this very much like a winterized version of their Sunshine pils..Darker malts--close to the same beer..But good. The taste grew on me. I could have a couple of these, but would not session this.

Picked up a 12oz bottle at the Beer Store in a mixed sixer. Served it into a nonic glass.
Hazy,mahogany color with a generous tan head with good retention turning chunky leaving a collar of lace atop the glass.

Clean,lots of pine taste as the aroma would suggest. Roasty,chocolatey,with lots of earthyness,leafy/resiny and some mineral taste. Balances out nicely with a mouthwatering bitter finish that leaves a mouthful of pine.Still smooth with a light, creamy feel. Very hoppy for a porter. It's like the Nugget Nectar except with Chinook hops instead.

Slightly overpowering to drink a lot of. Would suggest picking some up before it'a all gone.

Dead Reckoning opens to a surprisingly hoppy nose for a porter, with high levels of pink grapefruit, grapefruit rind, and pine resin emerging first and foremost. In fact, the beer smells far more like an IPA than a porter, to the extent that it takes a bit of effort to locate porter-like aromas beneath the hops. They are there, however, bringing in light layers of chocolate and chocolate malt, coffee, tobacco, cream, and even some toasted nut. Smatterings of toast crust and heavy brown breads add to the earthiness. But the majority--say, 60%--of the aromas are hops, which makes for a strange experience, and doesn’t seem to match up with the style. This would not ordinarily be a bad thing, as the hop aromas are very nice, but it does add a sense of confusion to the beer.

On the tongue, the beer opens with a hop blast that comes straight from the nose, with opening notes of grapefruit, grapefruit rind, and pine resin. These last for a second or two, and are then joined by a good layer of porter flavors, including coffee, chocolate malt, ash, tobacco, cream, toasted nut, and thick, almost burnt toast crust and brown bread, these latter flavors growing in strength as the beer is held on the tongue. The aftertaste is heavily ash, tobacco, burnt toast, and coffee grounds, and lingers for a long time. Mouthfeel is medium-light to medium, and carbonation is medium.

Overall, the beer seems to come in two stages: the hops first, then the porter flavors later, making the brew seem almost bipolar. This impression continues in subsequent sips, and while the transition from hops to ash within a single sip is nice, the sudden jar back to hops at the beginning of the next sip is strange, the grapefruit and coffee not quite mixing. Still, this is a decent porter, and quite refreshing in its lightness and citrusy goodness, with just enough black backbone to add body and an interesting counter.

Wow I've got to say this beer really blew me away. I really like Troegs beers but still I just didn't expect Dead Reckoning to be this good. This is one of those beer that i've had around the house for a little while but I always passed it up to drink other stuff.

A: Poured from a 12oz. bottle into a Duvel tulip. Pours a nice dark brown/black color. About one finger of a mocha colored head that dissapates fairly quickly but does leave some lacing throught drinking.

S: Picking up some really nice coffe and chocolate here but also some hops and roasted malt scents.

T: Again coffee and chocolate up front and a bit of a bite from the hops on the back end.This was bottled back in August so a fresher bottle might have a bit more hop prescence. All of the flavors here are blended wonderfully together and oh so smooth. This tastes like a lot bigger beer than the 5.40% would lead you to believe.

D: Yeah this beer really goes down nice and again, smooth. This is a bit lighter than most american stouts i've had but not by much. Still I could sure put back a couple of these in a sitting.